June/July 2009

Bare Ruin'd Choirs

Bare Ruin'd Choirs

Bare Ruin'd Choirs

A crisis of identity in choral music is leaving it professionally sidelined and with little status in society

Published on 1 June 2009

Paul Hilier is a baritone and a choral conductor. He is currently Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.

The New Rough Deal

The New Rough Deal

The New Rough Deal

How old music becomes new

Published on 1 June 2009

Ciaran Carson (1948–2019) was a poet, prose writer, translator and flute-player. He was the author of Last Night’s Fun – A Book about Irish Traditional Music, The Pocket Guide to Traditional Irish Music, The Star Factory, and the poetry collections The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti and First Language: Poems. He was Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Between 2008 and 2010 Ciaran wrote a series of linked columns for the Journal of Music, beginning with 'The Bag of Spuds' and ending with 'The Raw Bar'.

Book Review: The Irishness of Irish Music – John O’Flynn

Book Review: The Irishness of Irish Music – John O’Flynn

Book Review: The Irishness of Irish Music – John O’Flynn

The Irishness of Irish Music – John O’Flynn / Ashgate (Surrey and Vermont, 2009)

Published on 1 June 2009

Fintan Vallely lectures in traditional music at Dundalk Institute of Technology. He is author of several biographical and ethnographic books on the music, and is editor of the A-Z reference work Companion to Irish Traditional Music.

Ergodos Festival

Ergodos Festival

Ergodos Festival

Gamelan Sekar Petak, Neil Sorrell (director); The Gong Agenda; Michelle O’Rourke (soprano); Salil Sachdev (metal bowl, djembe, hang); Joe Browning (shakuhachi), Jonathan Sage (clarinet); Linda Buckley (voice) National Concert Hall, Dublin,

Published on 1 June 2009

Rob Casey is a Dublin-based musician and composer of electronic and acoustic music.

Concert Review: RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet – Works Commissioned for Seamus Heaney's 70 Birthday

Concert Review: RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet – Works Commissioned for Seamus Heaney's 70 Birthday

Concert Review: RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet – Works Commissioned for Seamus Heaney's 70 Birthday

RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin / 3 April 2009

Published on 1 June 2009

Barra Ó Séaghdha is a writer on cultural politics, literature and music.

Dermy Diamond, Tara Diamond and Dáithí Sproule

Dermy Diamond, Tara Diamond and Dáithí Sproule

Dermy Diamond, Tara Diamond and Dáithí Sproule

Seanchairde/Old Friends / 3-Scones-2008-001

Published on 1 June 2009

Toner Quinn is Editor of the Journal of Music. His new book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, is available here. Toner will be giving a lecture exploring some of the ideas in the book on Saturday 11 May 2024 at 3pm at Farmleigh House in Dublin. For booking, visit https://bit.ly/3x2yCL8.

What I Meant to Say Is...

What I Meant to Say Is...

What I Meant to Say Is...

What role does metaphor play in music?

Published on 1 June 2009

Peter Rosser (1970–2014) was a composer, writer and music lecturer.

He was born in London and moved to Belfast in 1990, where he studied composition at the University of Ulster and was awarded a DPhil in 1997. His music has been performed at the Spitalfields Festival in London, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s and by the Crash Ensemble in Dublin.

In 2011 the Arts Council acknowledged his contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland through a Major Individual Artist Award. He used this award to write his Second String Quartet, which was premiered in 2012 by the JACK Quartet at the opening concert at Belfast's new Metropolitan Arts Centre (The MAC).

Peter Rosser also wrote extensively on a wide range of music genres, with essays published in The Journal of Music, The Wire, Perspectives of New Music and the Crescent Journal. 

He died following an illness on 24 November 2014, aged 44.

From the Editor

From the Editor

There are many issues involved in writing about music, some of which are addressed in this issue in articles by John McLachlan and Bob Gilmore, but traditional-music criticism has problems all of its own.Unlike other genres, the body of hig

Published on 1 June 2009

Toner Quinn is Editor of the Journal of Music. His new book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, is available here. Toner will be giving a lecture exploring some of the ideas in the book on Saturday 11 May 2024 at 3pm at Farmleigh House in Dublin. For booking, visit https://bit.ly/3x2yCL8.

He's Just Not That Into You

He's Just Not That Into You

He's Just Not That Into You

Have we lost clear sight of the purpose of music criticism?

Published on 1 June 2009

Bob Gilmore (1961–2015) was a musicologist, educator and keyboard player. Born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, he studied at York University, Queen's University Belfast, and at the University of California. His books include Harry Partch: a biography (Yale University Press, 1998) and Ben Johnston: Maximum Clarity and other writings on music (University of Illinois Press, 2006), both of which were recipients of the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP. He wrote extensively on the American experimental tradition, microtonal music and spectral music, including the work of such figures as James Tenney, Horațiu Rădulescu, Claude Vivier, and Frank Denyer. Bob Gilmore taught at Queens University, Belfast, Dartington College of Arts, Brunel University in London, and was a Research Fellow at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent. He was the founder, director and keyboard player of Trio Scordatura, an Amsterdam-based ensemble dedicated to the performance of microtonal music, and for the year 2014 was the Editor of Tempo, a quarterly journal of new music. His biography of French-Canadian composer Claude Vivier was published by University of Rochester Press in June 2014. Between 2005 and 2012, Bob Gilmore published several articles in The Journal of Music.

Otomo Yoshihide / Sachiko M

Otomo Yoshihide / Sachiko M

Café Oto, London9–11 March 2009Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M’s three-day residency at Café Oto featured them in solo and duo performances, in addition to group improvisations alongside musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Christian...

Published on 1 June 2009

Stephen Graham is a lecturer in music at Goldsmiths, University of London. He blogs at www.robotsdancingalone.wordpress.com.

Live: Sonnets

Live: Sonnets

Berliner Ensemble, Berlin12 April 2009Pairing the director Robert Wilson and the musician Rufus Wainwright in a theatrical production to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets was a courageous commission

Published on 1 June 2009

Inbox

Inbox

Music That’s Good ValueClare Keville, Galway, writes:In ‘Music That’s Good Value’, (April–May), Toner Quinn writes that the ‘2009 winner of the Gradam Ceoil reflects a key belief in traditional music, that the contribution...

Published on 1 June 2009

Mantra

Mantra

Mantra

Kuljit Bhamra, Shahid Khan, the Orlando Consort and Jonathan Mayer Described as ‘musical conversations across the Indian Ocean’, Mantra is a new work cultivated by the National Centre for Early Music (York) which combines sixteenth-century

Published on 1 June 2009